Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

FOOD ACT 2004 - SECT 11

    (1)     For the purposes of this Act, food is unsuitable if it is food that:

        (a)     is damaged, deteriorated or perished to an extent that it affects its reasonable intended use;

        (b)     contains any damaged, deteriorated or perished substance that affects its reasonable use;

        (c)     is the product of a diseased animal, or an animal that has died otherwise than by slaughter, and has not been declared by or under another Act to be safe for human consumption; or

        (d)     contains a biological or chemical agent, or other matter or substance, that is foreign to the nature of the food.

    (2)     However, food is not unsuitable for the purposes of this Act merely because:

        (a)     at any particular time before it is sold for human consumption it contains an agricultural or veterinary chemical;

        (b)     when it is sold for human consumption it contains an agricultural or veterinary chemical, so long as it does not contain the chemical in an amount that contravenes the Food Standards Code;

        (c)     it contains a metal or non-metal contaminant (within the meaning of the Food Standards Code) in an amount that does not contravene the permitted level for the contaminant as specified in the Food Standards Code; or

        (d)     it contains any matter or substance that is permitted by the Food Standards Code.

    (3)     In this section:

"slaughter", in relation to an animal, includes killing an animal in the process of capturing, taking or harvesting it for the purposes of preparing it for use as food.